Anyone who’s been reading this blog a while knows my opinion of Deepak Chopra. Basically, he’s the quackiest of the quantum quacks, the godfather of quantum woo, the one woo-meister to rule them all. He did it first and did it “best” (if you can call it that), in the process garnering a devoted following of people with far more “spirituality” than understanding of science. All it took was a unrelenting abuse of quantum physics, a Lamarckian misunderstanding of evolution, combined with a bit of old-fashioned Cartesian mind-body dualism, all thrown into the blender with a mish-mash of Ayurvedic beliefs, rewarmed Eastern mysticism, and traditional Chinese medicine, all liberally sprinkled with whatever woo du jour that catches Deepak’s eye. it’s not for nothing that I coined a term for Deepak Chopra’s nonsense: Choprawoo.

Chopra has parlayed his promotion of Choprawoo into a veritable woo empire, including books, videos, and television and radio appearances. His empire of quantum mischief has become so large that I had to wonder: What’s next?

Though its existence remains inexplicable, Deepak Chopra’s Leela now has a trailer full of trippy visuals, obtuse references to spirituality and lots of pretty colors.

Indeed, the visuals shown in the video above are hilarious in their stereotypical psychedelia. Whether Chopra knows it or not, he looks as though he’s reinforcing a stereotype about alternative medicine and the sorts of spiritual teachings that he likes to foist upon gullible Americans and Europeans. Still, after seeing the promotional video I’m having a hard time figuring out just exactly what it is one would do with this game or how it would improve anyone’s life as claimed. So I did what I always do when I want to try to figure out the answer to a question. I Googled the game, and this is apparently what all those visuals that look like refugees from a Pink Floyd concert in 1967 tarted up with computer graphics are supposed to be doing:

The game will use the Kinect sensors to guide users through the seven “chakras,” or points along the body that many believe serve as a body’s energy centers. Somewhat like Wii Fit or other games like Flower, Leela will have minigames that get more difficult over time, but it will not have scores or other competitive aspects. Instead, it will be more about learning how to better do the exercises and enjoy the soothing visuals and music. In one exercise called the “root chakra,” players must tilt their hips to seed a plant on the screen. The “heart chakra” has players use their hands to direct fireballs that destroy rocks to release hidden gems.

Because directing fireballs at rocks to release hidden gems is exactly what I visualize when I’m trying to relax and meditate. But simple relaxation is not what this game is about. At least, that’s not what Chopra claims it’s about. You’d think the game would just be fun and perhaps serve as a convenient means for Chopra to promote his brand of woo. No doubt, that’s what it was, although reviewers who have tried the game seem rather unimpressed. Regardless of the opinion of gamers, Chopra is out to do more than entertain. He’s out to accelerate evolution. I kid you not:

“I personally believe that you can accelerate neural development and biological evolution through video games,” said Chopra. “Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re doing right now. What we’re doing is creating addictions to violence, adrenaline and mindlessness, rather than mindfulness. That was my personal motivation to get involved in this

Of course, adrenaline is a big reason that gamers are gamers. Many of them choose games that are exciting and challenging to play. For example, if you’re not doing the “root chakra” exercise, perhaps you’d like to control your breathing thusly:

One of the guided meditative modes uses Kinect’s depth sensor to measure seated players’ breathing patterns. The result is displayed onscreen as three undulating bars. As players move their chest, the soothing voice of yoga instructor Elena Brower provides instruction on how to control breathing. It’s the first such use of the technology in a Kinect game.

“We’re not selling it as a solution for measuring breath,” Armstrong said. “It’s just a tool for people to use. It may not work for certain people, but we’ve done so much testing on it that we think it will help most people visualize breathing in a new way. You may think you’re taking a deep breath until you see it in front of you.”

Personally, I think most people are aware when they’re taking a deep breath. In fact, I wonder if this thing could be considered a medical device if it claims to be able to help you develop better breathing patterns. It does appear to be skirting the line. However, whatever happens with Leela, whether it’s a success (which seems rather unlikely to me) or a flop (which seems more likely), Chopra doesn’t plan on stopping the woo here. Oh, no. He views Leela as the first step in a whole line of video games that will “accelerate human evolution. He envisions adding heart monitors, galvanic skin resistance probes, but to him the “best will be when we can monitor brain waves in a game.”

Great. Just what I want, a woo-ful game that measures my heart rate, brain waves, and skin resistance. Oh, wait a minute. Other than the brain waves, we already have that. It’s called a lie detector, and we all know how well those work; i.e., not very well at all.

Unfortunately, as usual, Chopra can’t resist using and abusing evolution yet again, as he has done so many times in the past. As we all know, Chopra seems to have a concept of evolution that only resembles the theory of evolution as understood by biologists by coincidence–and then only in snippets. In actuality, Chopra has infused his concept of evolution with pure pseudoscience. For one thing, he seems to have a real bug up his but about genetic determinism to the point that he rails against it and builds a straw man of absolute genetic determinism that he proceeds to apply his torch of burning stupid to. He also misunderstands the theory of evolution as implying complete randomness in how new alleles arise (which, because he dislikes any idea that doesn’t allow him to claim power over his own behavior and evolution, he rejects) when, as anyone who understands the basics of evolution knows, it is not. Perhaps that explains how Chopra can drop a howler like this:

I think the way technology is moving right now, we could probably, with a little deeper understanding, accelerate the evolution of the human brain within a few months [to equal] what might take hundreds of years of biological evolution.

Now, that’s a very strange statement when you hear it for the first time. But the way technology is expanding right now, we’re getting a better understanding of how experience shapes the anatomy of the brain, as well as all the neurons and neuroplasticity.

There’s also genetic indeterminism, which means your genes turn on and off based on your life experiences, and all the work being done in quantum psychology. They’re talking about things like you know how your emotions, your relationships, your sense of achievement, and your purpose of meaning in your daily life — all this actually influences the way your body functions.

I knew it! I knew it! I just knew that Chopra couldn’t get through his promotion of his new video game without dropping the word “quantum” in there somewhere. What the hell is “quantum psychology,” anyway? It sounds like yet another made-up pseudoscience based on a typical quack’s misunderstanding of what quantum theory actually says. In other words, it’s perfect for Chopra, who seems to think that quantum physics means that anything can happen at any time for no reason, meaning that anything he can imagine can happen if he wishes hard enough. In any case, an individual’s brain can’t “evolve,” at least not in the way biologists mean evolution. Evolution is the change in organisms over time over generations. Evolution through natural selection and other mechanisms determines which organisms with which traits are more or less likely to reproduce, and that differential reproduction over time determines which traits become more common and which become less common in subsequent generations. Claiming that an individual can “evolve” his or her own brain in a few months by using a video game or other technology is a nonsensical statement that betrays a profound ignorance of basic biology and neuroscience.

Comments

“I personally believe that you can accelerate neural development and biological evolution through video games,”

Well, on a very slight technicality he’s correct since video games can certainly change the way your neurons are grouped and give you better reflexes. However, what the hell does that have to do with your genome? His explanation sounds like someone raised the Lamarckian zombie and gave it a quantum-Hindi mystical woo colonic.

Serious Woo aside, it does look like it would be relaxing to play – even with the Acid Trip visuals. Or maybe because of the Acid Trip visuals. Just use it to mellow out and unwind in a way that, say, Mass Effect II isn’t mellow-inducing.

Though, to be honest, I’d still prefer Flower as a video game to just chill with.

I can’t see the video here at work, but from the description I’d say you could get much the same gameplay experience on an Xbox with Rez HD, which I highly recommend at a mere $10 IIRC. (The same designer also released Child of Eden, which is almost as woo-packed as Deepak’s, but I hadn’t really gotten past the tutorial before I had to quit (yay summer cold with joint inflammation) so I can’t give an informed opinion.)

Kinect is a lot of fun, but Chopra seems to expect rather a lot from it.

Chopra and those who spread the gospel of New Age science-cum-spiritualism keep telling us how “ahead of the curve” they are, how they are the harbingers of paradigm shift, heralding a revolution in thought, that they are the epitome of evolutionary ascension :*tres* creative and innovative!

So why is this stuff so frigging banal and pedestrian? Come on, now! Haven’t we all seen/heard all of this bally folderol previously? Seriously, shills and minions at RI reveal more creativity when making throw-away 30 second comments …for a joke. Deepak *paid* somebody to write/ produce this? Which should tell us something: if your futuristic- but truly *timeless*- iconoclast relies upon 40 year old psychedelia perhaps he ain’t so *novelle vague* afterall but a purveyor of re-cycled pop culture re-imagined to target a younger audience while holding on to his older cohorts.

Or it might be that he ( like our web woo-meisters) is targetting a *particular* audience- one not too exacting- that would envision itself as hip but doesn’t have the abilities to scout out true hip on its own? I suspect the gurus share in their acolytes’ lack.

So many people make fun of the woo peddlers, but the latter are rolling in mountains of cash. My only complaint is I wish I had thought of it. Is it really so bad to deprive suckers of their money? Seriously, most of the woo customers seem to be middle class white people looking for answers in their vapid lives. Who cares if someone like that gets ripped off?

The “heart chakra” has players use their hands to direct fireballs that destroy rocks to release hidden gems.

Aha! Now we know finally what ‘Tim the Enchanter’ was up to!

Denice Walter #9 wrote:

Chopra and those who spread the gospel of New Age science-cum-spiritualism keep telling us how “ahead of the curve” they are, how they are the harbingers of paradigm shift, heralding a revolution in thought, that they are the epitome of evolutionary ascension :*tres* creative and innovative! So why is this stuff so frigging banal and pedestrian?

Exactly. Since when is mind/body dualism (or idealistic monism) a radical idea, a brave new way of “thinking outside the box?” It is “the box” — a bunch of sloppy intuitions and childish, primitive misconceptions. You have to struggle and learn how to think your way out. They’re so busy congratulating themselves on not being in a mainstream religion that they miss the fact that they’re not saying anything new. And it’s wrong, in addition to being boring.

When the Spiritual Left talks about evolution, they tend to think of it as a kind of progress — a spiritual force working through matter in order to achieve enlightened beings. That’s not science — but they’ll seem to support science against creationism. Not because they know why creationism is wrong in fact, but because they think they know how creationism is wrong in spirit.

Someone mentioned Rez. Sometime I should replay my Japanese copy on my modchipped PS2… Oh, yeah, had an indie game called Synaesthete or something that didn’t work properly on my last laptop. Should see if my new one’ll run it properly.

I think a psychedelic videogame that’s based on the idea that you’re reaching higher levels of enlightenment by completing levels is entertaining if left as a game. After all, there are a lot of videogames that a skilled player can get into a sort of “zen” mode, where they can quickly react to the game with little conscious thought getting in the way.

But, of course, this should never be taken seriously. Chopra’s just plain silly.

While I do catch your drift, I have other ways of earning money that rely upon my abilities while not taking advantage of others- I counsel people and invest money in the markets and have done very well.

It can be argued that the marks should *know better* but fall for woo-meisters’ claptrap because they’re lazy and self-indulgent and that Chopra’s brand of nonsense may be less dangerous than others’ ( i.e. those who promote imaginary cures for cancer). Maybe his stuff isn’t so different from paying money to see a film like “Avatar”- entertainment that relies on fantasy. Maybe not. But I believe he’s *at least* an enabler for the bottom-feeders that Orac regularly deconstructs here. And money isn’t everything.

“Is it really so bad to deprive suckers of their money? Seriously, most of the woo customers seem to be middle class white people looking for answers in their vapid lives. Who cares if someone like that gets ripped off?”

Well, I care…

Not all “suckers” are willfully ignorant. Some are simply naive, and actually appreciate it when someone explains how they’re being ripped off. For example, I mod a couple of private health and fitness forums, and have been repeatedly thanked for helping members save thousands of dollars in useless supplements. Different context, to be sure, but similar principle.

Not everyone can be reached, but it still makes a difference in the lives of those who can.

Good thing too, since critical thinking skills are life skills. There’s more on the table than just suckers losing a few bucks. If people can’t critically evaluate claims for alt med, they’re probably also going to struggle when it comes to “big picture” issues like teaching creation science/ID in public schools or global warming.

Actually, if you look up “evolve”, it means “to come forth gradually into being”, “develop”. Chopra’s talk about the brain “evolving in months” is correct English.
People probably can train their brains with video games. There are video games that train people’s memory, math skills, coordination, etc.
The video did remind me of Brave New World. It’s a stereotype: attractive pampered woman in living room does exercises in front of psychedelic screen, which with soothing spacey music blots out the emotional and literal screams outside. The Product massages her chakras, as she ooohs.

Missed QK’s comment, there. The thing that stops me from cashing in as a woo guru is basic compassion for other people.

Some aren’t as lucky as I was: I was raised in a science-loving household, encouraged to get good grades, and curiosity about “hard” questions was considered a virtue.

A lot of other people out there are more in the category of indoctrinated than raised, and that includes a lot of ‘newage’ households, where they simply weren’t taught how to think critically or verbally punished for expressing anything ‘negative.’ Many were presented with a naive black-and-white view of the world, often with certain gurus elevated to deific authorities who must not be questioned.

I’d rather try to do my part to get them into the rational world than face the guilt of cheating people out of their money and possibly their lives. I want the next generation to get off on a better start, and getting skeptical ideas out there is a necessary step toward that end.

Of course, that’s another aspect to this to be emphasized: The children. Alties and other woos can easily end up in situations where they can hurt children who aren’t old enough to be responsible for themselves. I’ve heard far too many stories of alties treating their children like privately owned guinea pigs. They don’t deserve to be the victim of someone else’s naivete.

It’s a book by Robert Anton Wilson, 60’s acidhead and counterculture author. I actually own a copy of this, though I’ve not read it since my recovering-from-woo days. I recall it as being not all bad, though; maybe I should take another look.

The woo is the idea that thinking about certain events can significantly alter their probability of occurring. Chopra and Ramtha and that crowd trade on an equivocation between crazy shit being vanishingly possible and it being controllable through imagination/ desire/ self-control/ the will/ paying $99.95 a month to some woomeister, or whatever.

Skeptics only hurt their case when they deny that QM is batshit crazy insane stuff. If the world is deeply random, then a bunch of independent random events might well come together in any crazy way you can think of. But that wouldn’t have happened *because you thought of it that way* (or because you thought of it that way while playing a terrible video game).

IAAQP, and no. What’s normally being talked about in this context is that, while QM states that the outcome of an observation is random, it is random according to a particular probability distribution. (Sometimes calculable/knowable, sometimes not, but there’s always one.) This not only means that particular outcomes are staggeringly unlikely, but that some are actually impossible. No matter how many times you measure the interaction of an electron and a photon, you’ll never get a proton coming out. The probability of that is strictly zero (aside from the probability that our understanding of the physics involved is faulty).

Quantum phenomena are weird, no question there, but they are just as bound by rules and math as classical phenomena. Those rules are quite counterintuitive for the most part, but they are equally real.

I think you over-analyze the chopraspeak. He is so wrong that it’s clear that it’s not because he misunderstands what the terms mean. It’s because he intentionally use existing words to describe some other concepts. Well, that’s only half of his maneuver.

The second half is that those “other concepts” aren’t supposed to be real phenomena that can be described. Those are basically McGuffins in a hitchcockian sense. They are plot devices, their actual content doesn’t matter to Chopra targets or Chopra himself. They’re supposed to sound smart and reasonable – hence he uses the same words that smart and reasonable people (scientist) would use. And in his narration they are clearly goals worth striving for – so people strive for them. And he tells them how to attain them – buy his books/videos/games and do this and that. The narration is complete. Actual meaning behind that thing that he calls “evolution” (or quantum whatever) doesn’t matter. Even more – not only doesn’t matter, but if there was an actual meaning, it would be detractive from the narration.

Not gonna happen. Chopra is too experienced narrator to make that error and give actual meaning to his plot devices. Nobody is gonna ever find what was in Marsellus Wallace briefcase.

@Wintermute,
Several people have used the term ‘quantum psychology’ mostly woefully woofully. However, Robert Anton Wilson’s book ‘Quantum Psychology’ has nothing at all to do with Choprawoo. It’s more to do with the impossibility of absolute certainty about anything, the usefulness of E-Prime, and of multi-valued logic systems (for example true, false, indeterminate, meaningless).

I am a big fan of RAW, and corresponded with him by letter and on-line for several years. I love his books; though I don’t always agree with everything he wrote, I always find they make me think a bit harder about what I think I know, which I think is a good thing. I must re-read Quantum Psychology, but from what I remember it is a fascinating read. Others’ tastes may, of course, differ.

One nit to pick: as a singer I can assure you that “most people are aware when they’re taking a deep breath” is if not false, definitely arguable. Maybe most people (as in over 50%) are, but quite a lot aren’t.

A lot of people breathe badly. They don’t expand their diaphragms much, or use intercostal muscles to expand the ribcage. They raise their shoulders and push out their bellies and think that’s a deep breath. Breathing for relaxation, yoga, singing and other uses takes training.

In Quantum Spirituality, virtual idiotic idea states create the woo fields. Several well known of these are; the field of Homeopathy, the field of Reiki, various fields of CAM, etc. If fact, there are theoretically an unlimited number of these fields.
These idea states can be manifested and observed in high energy stupidity accelerators constructed out of stunted development, magical thinking, and lack of knowledge in the pure intelligence vacuum existing in certain housing mechanisms called vacant proselytizers.
Theoretical spiritualists these events spontaneously arise from nothing all the time. Experimental realists have confirmed this but point out that these vacuum states are so idiotic that they are not even nothing.

The latest news is that is that Chopra confessed on his death-bed that he was scamming the whole time but in the end he wanted to repent due to his fear that Cthulhu would devour him slowly if he did not. It is my rumor and I am sticking with it.

Not gonna happen. Chopra is too experienced narrator to make that error and give actual meaning to his plot devices. Nobody is gonna ever find what was in Marsellus Wallace briefcase.

Hmm. Babbldeegook as plot device. A very interesting interpretation of the mystery sandwich phenomenon.

Lots of people have compulsions or addictions. For me, curiosity can be very compelling. It’s sad that hucksters and marketers have figured out how to use vague and dissonant language mixed with empty promises to trap people like me in endless, expensive wild goose chase rides.

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